Switchers' Blog

A 1Password alpha for Chromium is here

You've shown your support for 1Password in Chrome by emailing, posting in our forums, tweeting, Facebook poking, shipping sacrificial lambs (tip: FedEx is much more lamb-friendly than UPS), offering first-borns, and even a really good pie. We really appreciate all the love everyone, and I'm happy to say that we can finally return some to you.

We now have an alpha 1Password extension ready for testing in Chrome.

Please read this important stuff

Before we get down to business, I have to emphasize that this is an alpha, a term with origins in the Greek "álpha," which meant "extremely early in the development phase, with very little polish, and many nonexistent and unfinished features." Yes, even the ancient Greeks alpha-tested software, usually so the gods didn't have to. It's true! Look it up¹.

We're so early in the development phase for our Chrome extension that the main feedback we're soliciting at this point is "yay 1Password works in Chrome!" or "it doesn't even work." Right now, the only features that (are supposed to) work are unlocking 1Password and filling simple login forms (in other words: 1Password can fill usernames and passwords into a number of sites in Chrome, but we know that plenty don't work yet). Don't forget: this is an alpha feature for a beta developer platform. If you decide to help us test the Chrome extension, please leave feedback about these features in our new Chrome forum. You can email us too, but those queries are not as high of a priority for our support staff right now since we're in alpha, and are likely to be for at least a few weeks. You are much more likely to receive a faster response in the forums, so we encourage you to post feedback there.

Enough silly talk! Give me 1Password for Chrome!

Fortunately, helping us to test the 1Password extension in Chrome is pretty simple. We posted instructions in our alpha announcement thread, and they go a little somethin' like this:

1. Make sure you have at least 1Password 3.0.4 installed. It just came out yesterday.
2. Install the developer build of Chrome or the latest Chromium. The latest developer version is required to have the needed extensions support.
3. Enter this URL into Chrome's address bar: http://agile.ws/s/a330894b8 and install the extension from the notification that should appear at the bottom of Chrome's window.

It's a small start, but with all the requests we've had, we wanted to get you something sooner instead of later. We hope you enjoy testing this early alpha 1Password extension in Chrome, and don't forget to leave feedback in our Chrome forum. You can comment here too, but our forum is the best place if you want both the Agile staff and 1Password community to chime in.

Enjoy!

Extension not installing? Here are some tips

• If you've been running the Chrome beta, you may have to delete your existing Chrome support folder before trying to install the extension. I know I had to, and you can find this folder in ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome (where "~" is your Home user folder). This means your bookmarks, browsing history, open tabs, and other settings will also be lost. Such is the fast-paced life of living on the edge. The next time your start Chrome, you can use the Chrome > Import Bookmarks and Settings option to re-import all your stuff from either Safari or Firefox if need be.
• Try entering "chrome://extensions" (without the quotes) into Chrome's address bar. Click "developer," then update your extensions.
• Some users are reporting that if the extension doesn't begin working right away, simply restarting Chrome may do the trick.
• Still not working? Jump over to the 1Password Chrome Support Forum for help. Be sure to start with the Troubleshooting guide which will be kept up-to-date.

1. Ok fine, it's not true.

1Password 3.0.4 gains Quick Look, more tagging, and other goodness

It's time to run Check for Updates ladies and gentlemen, for 1Password 3.0.4 is upon us. Forged among the pillars of Mount Olympus, perfected behind lab doors at Stark Industries, this free update for registered owners literally gained over 60 new features, changes, and fixes. No joke.

To clarify: when we say "perfected behind lab doors at Stark Industries," we mean "3.0.3 was briefly released earlier today but pulled due to a hangup with the licenses window, which is why we are now at 3.0.4."

Leading the pack is Quick Look of attachments for 10.6 Snow Leopard users and a ton of new tagging features. Tag folders now appear in the Go & Fill menu, and they also get their own section and new icons in 1Password's sidebar. A new "Untagged" Smart Folders should help you get your tags in order. But if you don't use or even want to see tags in 1Password's sidebar, you have new preferences to hide that or any other Vault section.

Those itching to finally finish the switch from Firefox 3, KeepPass, and LicenseKeeper can finally start scratching. 1Password can now import from all three, in addition to KeepPassX and 15 other applications. We also now import the notes field from Web Confidential software license types.

We made lots of improvements to the Wi-Fi iPhone sync process, the way we turn dragged text notes into Secure Notes, form filling on a number of sites including Audible.com, and lots, lots more. Check out the full 3.0.4 changelog or go to 1Password > Check for Updates to view the changes and automatically upgrade.

Lifehacker: "Your Passwords Aren't As Secure As You Think; Here's How to Fix That"

Lifehacker's "The How-To Geek" wrote a reality check about password security in the 21st century, and the summarized thesis is that things are still not great. The blogger points out some pitfalls of modern security implementations, including the fact that Pidgin, a popular open-source, multi-protocol chat client, stores account passwords on the drive in plain text. Egad.

The How-To Geek arrives at the ultimate conclusion that: 

The only truly secure way to store your passwords is to use a password manager to securely track your passwords, combined with a a great master password to protect the rest of your saved passwords.

A link to a previous Lifehacker post, Five Best Password, Managers, offers some great recommendations for taking your online security up a notch, including 1Password.

We're always grateful to get a mention from a great publication like Lifehacker. But it's also good to hear a call to both developers and users to take security more seriously.